And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting
upon
the service [thereof]
The heavy service of it: and shall serve no
more;
by bearing and carrying the vessels of the sanctuary upon their
shoulders, as Jarchi interprets it; this, according to the Jewish
writers, was only in force while the tabernacle was in the
wilderness, and was moved from place to place: but when it had a
fixed habitation, and that laborious service of bearing and
carrying the vessels of it ceased, years made no difference in
the Levites, or disqualified them for service; for it is said
F24, that the Levites were not bound by
this law, but in the time of the tabernacle; but when it was at
Shiloh, and at Jerusalem, where there was no bearing and carrying
upon the shoulder, the Levites were not rejected on account of
years, only for their voice, when they had lost that, and could
not sing.